St. Thomas Robotics Teams with Lamar at Vex World Championship

The robotics collaboration between St. Thomas and Lamar concluded its season competing at the 10th annual Vex World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.

DiscoBots, or Team 2587K, finished with a 6-4 record and in the top third of the Technology Division, one of six clusters designed as a qualifying stage involving 535 teams from more than 30 countries.

Team ambassador Jimmy Phan ‘20 scouted teams from other brackets, evaluating potential complementary strengths critical to team success while Joseph Hassell ’18 concentrated on improving the program for the autonomous portion of the competition, the initial 15 seconds of each match when clever robots attempt to gain an advantage before team drivers engage the controls.

The event included several tiers of competition with teams ranging from universities to middle schools, and participants from Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Singapore, China and Great Britain among other countries.